page_title: English billiards
section_title: Beginning the game
hierarchical_section_title: English billiards / Rules / Beginning the game
caption_attribution_description: Deutsch: Snooker auf einem 6-Fuß Tisch. English: A game of snooker (or billiards) in progress. The game is being played on a half-size table. Français&#160;: Image prise pendant une partie de billard, joué sur une table de taille réduite.
context_page_description: English billiards, called simply billiards in the United Kingdom, where it originated, and in many former British colonies such as Australia, is a cue sport that combines the aspects of carom billiards and pocket billiards. Two cue balls and a red object ball are used. Each player or team uses a different cue ball. It is played on a billiards table with the same dimensions as a snooker table and points are scored for cannons and pocketing the balls. English billiards has also, but less frequently, been referred to as "the English game", "the all-in game" and "the common game".
context_section_description: To see who will be the starting player, both players simultaneously hit a cue ball up the table, bouncing it off the top cushion so that it returns to baulk (the first quarter-length of the table). The player who gets his ball closer to the baulk cushion can now choose which cue ball he wants to use during the game and to break or let the opponent break.
  The red ball is placed on the spot at the top of the table (same as the black spot in snooker) and the first player begins by playing in-hand from the "D" behind the baulk line. The other cue ball remains off the table until the opponent's first turn, when he plays in hand from the "D".
  The idea is to leave the balls safe by creating either a double baulk (both object balls in baulk), or the red in baulk with the cue-ball tight (frozen) to the top-side cushion.
caption: A game in progress, red ball about to be potted.
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